It is true that in cooperating with prayer, we should take action and go out to visit by door-knocking. However, your person is crucial when it comes to door-knocking. Due to our persons, your visiting may be one way, and my visiting may be another way; if the president were to visit people, he would do it in yet another way. Therefore, there have to be some requirements for visitation by door-knocking. First, you must be one who loves and seeks the Lord. Second, you must be one who pursues the truth and is learned in truth. Third, you must be one who grows in life and is being transformed day by day. Fourth, you must be one who deals often with sins, prays before the Lord, and is always filled by the Holy Spirit. Fifth, you must be one who has had a change in character because of the life that is within you. In order to go out visiting people by door-knocking, you need to be equipped with these fundamental requirements.
Using a colloquial expression, we may describe the shortcoming of the Chinese as being loose and sloppy. In the spring of this year, there were over one hundred college graduates who joined the Full-time Training in Taipei. I have had two classes with them every week. Once I said to them, “Your hair is not properly combed; it looks so messy. Will people listen to you when you go and preach the gospel to them? Look at yourselves. Your ties do not match in color, your shirts are not coordinated, your socks look even worse, and who knows how long it has been since you last polished your shoes. If this is the way you look, when you stand there giving a message or sit there to preach the gospel to others, who will listen to you? A Chinese proverb says, ‘Words from a man of lowly position carry little weight.’ This means that if you are a light person, your speaking will be light as well. When people see that you do not look like a proper person yet you are trying to preach the gospel to them to get them saved, they may think that you should be saved first before you come and get them saved.” Thank and praise the Lord that after I said that, the next time I went to the class I saw that the brothers had combed their hair neatly and the sisters had changed their clothes. They all dressed properly and suitably, and their shoes were brightly polished.
If you truly love the Lord, desire the truth, pursue the growth in life, frequently confess your sins, receive dealings before the Lord, and are being filled with the Holy Spirit, you will be improved in your character. If you have a good character when you go out to visit people, they will give you a certain amount of respect from the moment they open the door. But when you go to knock on doors, if your hair is messy, your tie is crooked and does not match your clothes, and your shoes are not polished, then people may open the door to let you in, and they may ask you to sit down, but the more they observe you, the more they will feel that you are not proper. After being examined by them for a few minutes, you will be too embarrassed to speak, and you will lose your standing. Therefore, for us to propagate and for the number of people to increase, we need to be thoroughly changed and equipped anew.
When we go door-knocking in the community and on the campuses, we must know how to do it. First of all, every time before we go out, we must have adequate and thorough prayer until we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Once we turn to our spirit and pray to the Lord, our inner being will be enlightened. We will sense many things that are improper, as though we have come to a mirror and seen our real situation. At that time, we have to confess our sins, the more the better. This will cause us to deal with our sins. When we have nothing more to confess is when the Holy Spirit fills us. When all of our trespasses and sins have been emptied out, the Holy Spirit will fill our entire being. Then we will have the boldness to go door-knocking.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is like breathing. Breathing is a continual matter. If we hold our breath for three minutes, we will die. Hence, every time we go to visit people, we first have to pray earnestly. Even though we prayed yesterday, we have to pray again for our going out today and come before the Lord for His shining. In our daily walk in the world we are always being defiled; thus, we need to be cleansed again and again. This may be likened to washing our hands. Although I do not usually do the cleaning at home and try my best not to touch anything dirty, I still have to wash my hands seven to eight times a day. In the same way, no matter how thoroughly you prayed and confessed to the Lord yesterday, you still have to pray thoroughly today before you go out to visit people and bring the Lord to them. You cannot omit this time of prayer. You must pay the price for this. If you are serious in this matter, you will realize that it is not enough to spend merely three to five minutes to pray.
It is an unalterable law that to pray until we are filled with the Holy Spirit requires us to be enlightened and to confess our sins. The more silent we are before the Lord and the more we are open to Him, the more sense we will have within. That sense is the Lord’s speaking to us; it is the Lord’s shining. The Lord speaks to us by the sense we have. As this sense becomes clearer and clearer and the Lord’s shining becomes brighter and brighter, we will see our mistakes. We need to confess our sins one by one and deal with them as we sense the Lord’s shining. The Lord may shine on you to show you that your anger at your wife this morning was not right. After confessing this to the Lord, He may say, “Now that you have confessed your sin to Me, you need to go to your wife to apologize.” This puts you in a difficult position. If you stop here and do not go and apologize, you will be finished. In this condition you will not be effective in your door-knocking. Amazingly, if you do go and apologize and come again before the Lord, you will immediately be filled with the Holy Spirit. You will feel the “wind” of the Spirit passing through you. Then your going out to knock on doors will go well.
This is not a coincidence; rather, this is a spiritual law. If you have some knots within you that you cannot be freed from, how are you going to free others? If you yourself are not saved, how are you going save others? In other words, we need to let the Lord first save us to the uttermost until we are freed; then when we go out door-knocking, we can save others. We might be able to pretend in other matters, but we cannot pretend in this matter. One can tell by looking at the fruit. I hope that we will seriously be exercised in this matter before the Lord.
To pray, to confess our sins, to deal with our sins, and subsequently to be filled with the Holy Spirit will result in boldness and confidence. If you go out door-knocking but have not prayed, your legs will be shaking, and you will not have power in your speaking. However, through prayer, confessing of sins, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, not only will you have the boldness when door-knocking, but you will also have the confidence that the person you are visiting will be saved. If you have not been filled with the Holy Spirit, you might not be able to speak even a word out of your mouth. Once you are filled with the Holy Spirit though, not only will you have the power for speaking, but you also can determine whether or not he will be saved. If you say he will be saved, he will be saved; if you say he will not be saved and that he needs to wait awhile, then he will not be saved. This is the effectiveness of prayer, confessing of sins, and being filled with the Holy Spirit.